Dave Meltzer stuff

[Sean Liska]

He'd have to be, right? I just can't imagine Dave out there going, "And here's the final chapter in the epic feud Toru Yano and Minoru Suzuki have engaged in over the past year"

 

Here's the quote for context - "My name was in the running in the sense one of Jarrett’s friends pushed hard for me right when it became clear there was no longer even a chance of Mike Tenay being able to do it, so this would be Thanksgiving week. I had no contact with anyone about it until someone close to the show mentioned to me my name was discussed but they didn’t think I’d do it due to my ridiculous schedule that week. I did have an e-mail exchange with Jarrett a few days ago over it, but it was brief, although I’d have done it. "

[Johnny Sorrow]

I just heard on Ross' podcast that it's gonna be Matt Striker.

[sek69]

I find it funny that Dave is always bringing up the dated references used by the WWE announce team, but never passes up a chance to make a 70s Roller Derby reference in the newsletter. This week it was comparing Charlotte to some tall blonde who Dave claims was one of the most popular female athletes in the country at the time, which makes me wonder if he realizes Roller Derby wasn't nearly as popular everywhere else as it was on the West Coast.

[jushin muta liger]

In today's Observer, Dave mentioned talking to Jeff Jarrett about being JR's partner for the NJPW 1/4 show and being willing to do it. Interesting since I remember him being regretful about even having a brief association in the 80s with WWE and scouting some foreign talent for them and thinking it compromised him.

Who was the foreign talent that Dave scouted for WWE? I never heard that story before. Was it the AJW wrestlers who came for that mini tour in 86?

[JNLister]

I may be misremembering but I believe it wasn't so much foreign talent as much as US guys working in Japan, with WWF saying "hey, you watch all the tapes, how's so and so looking these days?"

[Zoo Enthusiast]

I just heard on Ross' podcast that it's gonna be Matt Striker.

When Ross was first announced, I really was expecting Jarett to be chasing that smark money hard and have Dave providing instant star ratings during the broadcast. As much as Striker sucks, I think Dave would have been a terrible idea. Whatever happened to Josh Barnett? Wasn't he the original rumor?

[goc]

I probably would have checked it out for the oddity of hearing Dave Meltzer and Jim Ross calling matches together.

[Sidebottom]

Would Dave be able to be a kayfabe announcer? Cause if they're planning on doing commentary that's not , yuck.

 

This has actually been a long term fear of mine. It's a matter of time before some indy show feels they are being revolutionary by having a shoot announce team...

 

"This is great selling of the ankle..."

[kjh]

In today's Observer, Dave mentioned talking to Jeff Jarrett about being JR's partner for the NJPW 1/4 show and being willing to do it. Interesting since I remember him being regretful about even having a brief association in the 80s with WWE and scouting some foreign talent for them and thinking it compromised him.

 

I'm not surprised Dave would be up for doing it, given that he's a big fan of modern day New Japan. Times also change. He's been part and parcel of the business for so long that he really isn't an outsider anymore.

[Loss]

We need a new voice with under-the-radar access who isn't so much concerned with beltway-type access. I don't think Dave seeks it out, but he has it just by being on the job for so long. Wade is objective and has an interesting perspective, in some ways more so than Dave, but seems to have dried up his sources. MKJ reports news really well, but doesn't really analyze it or investigate things beyond the surface. I'm looking forward to the next person who comes along who isn't afraid to piss people off even if they aren't seeking it out while also not sensationalizing for attention like I feel like Irv sometimes does.

 

I guess the ideal new person to come along would have Dave's knowledge, MKJ's connections and Wade's organizational skills and ability to interview.

[pol]

I wonder how much the Observer is valued by guys in the business now. I get the impression that back in the day a lot of the value of it to guys in the top two companies was to find out what was going on in the other company, and obviously that need doesn't exist any more. On the other hand, I'd imagine a lot of the younger guys now probably grew up reading the thing before they ever got into the business.

[NintendoLogic]

I find it funny that Dave is always bringing up the dated references used by the WWE announce team, but never passes up a chance to make a 70s Roller Derby reference in the newsletter. This week it was comparing Charlotte to some tall blonde who Dave claims was one of the most popular female athletes in the country at the time, which makes me wonder if he realizes Roller Derby wasn't nearly as popular everywhere else as it was on the West Coast.

 

It's not ridiculous to think that a roller derby player would have been one of the most famous female athletes in America in the pre-Title IX era. Who else was there besides Billie Jean King?

[Johnny Sorrow]

It's ridiculous because it was fucking Roller Derby, no one really cared about it, and it wasn't a real sport.

And Babe Deidrickson was incredibly famous in the Forties and Fifties, Sonia Henie in the 20's-the 50's, Wilma Rudolph in 1960....

There were famous women athletes before Title Nine in 1972.

[Strand Peanut]

Roller Derby pretty much packed it in by the mid 70's. But it was a consistent TV presence in the USA for a long time. With the advent of UHF Roller Derby had a home everywhere.

 

Still was able to pack 50,000 in Chicago before things went belly up, as well.

 

I don't think it'd be out of bounds to label someone from Roller Derby as very popular in that time. Also, no idea who Dave is referencing. Also doubt he would say they were the most popular female athlete in the US. But they were likely a consistent TV presence for many years, which certainly counts. Espcially at that time.

 

That model helped make a lot of wrestlers very popular too.

 

It may seem odd, or just anachronistic, but Roller Derby as a business had very interesting parallels to the Wrestling business at the time.

[kjh]

Was Dave Meltzer wrong to have been willing to announce for Global Force Wrestling?

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/12/20/7428971/was-dave-meltzer-wrong-announce-global-force-wrestling-gfw-new-japan-njpw

[sek69]

I don't see how it would have been wrong for him to be willing to announce for them. Maybe if it was a full time gig, but Dave would never have made that sort of commitment. As a one time deal it would have been fine I think. It would have been far more weird to me listening him talk about wrestling in a kayfabe manner than wondering if it would have compromised his coverage in the newsletter.

[Coffey]

I wouldn't have been able to listen to the commentary if Meltzer was on there. His constant "ya know?" every four seconds made his podcasts unbearable, I can't imagine his commentary.

 

A man that's a terrible writer and terrible speaker has a newsletter & a podcast. It's so backwards that it makes perfect sense that he's involved with professional wrestling, since nothing else makes sense there either.

 

Not that was I looking forward to Mike Tenay or now Matt Striker on color commentary either, mind you.

[tim]

Dave Meltzer and Jim Ross commentating on the NJPW January Dome show broadcast on PPV by Jeff Jarrett's nebulous vanity promotion?

 

Yes I would have wanted that.

[Sean Liska]

No one seems to care about Dave doing the NJPW show because everyone just loves NJPW so much nowadays. But to me that was a pretty crazy thing for Dave to even consider. A pro wrestling announcer is an on-air performer like anyone else on the roster.

[goc]

Not really seeing the controversy. He wouldn't have been paid by NJPW he would have been paid by GFW. I don't see any reason it would have affected his future coverage of New Japan just because he called one New Japan show for Jeff Jarrett's PPV that no one is going to buy anyway. How is it different than people in sports media like Bob Costas who calls games for MLB Network?

[JNLister]

I wouldn't be at all shocked if that line in the Observer turns out to be either badly worded or a misprint and he meant to say he wouldn't have done it. Even leaving aside the ethics issue, I seriously doubt he would have been available to fly to Japan, particularly on the weekend of one of the biggest UFC shows of the year.

[BillThompson]

Not really seeing the controversy. He wouldn't have been paid by NJPW he would have been paid by GFW. I don't see any reason it would have affected his future coverage of New Japan just because he called one New Japan show for Jeff Jarrett's PPV that no one is going to buy anyway. How is it different than people in sports media like Bob Costas who calls games for MLB Network?

 

The difference there is that essentially MLB is the only game in town and Costas doesn't run a private business where he offers "objective" analysis of an entire field. Had Meltzer taken the gig his credibility should have been shot, but most probably would have ignored simply out of blind love for NJPW. This would be more akin to Costas owning Baseball Prospectus and doing announcing for the San Diego Padres while still purporting to be delivering unbiased analysis of the Padres product in his Baseball Prospectus work.

[Loss]

What would Dave have said if a match was bad? That's the issue.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Or if the commentary was bad. Would he "bury" himself or Jim Ross? Now he can get all his "Matt Striker sucks" points written out in advance.

 

Just an odd decision to even disclose it. Will be difficult to look at his analysis of the broadcast and not think it has been colored by him being passed over.

[rzombie1988]

I don't really see the controversy here for a lot of reasons:

 

1) Every wrestling fan would love to call a show. No one here would turn down a commentary gig for the Tokyo Dome. No one, unless they were physically unable to. Dylan does a radio show. So would him doing it mean it wouldn't morally correct to do so? Should ___ ESPN commentator stop covering their sport because it wouldn't be ethical? Bullshit.

 

2) Dave is already connected with almost every promotion in some way or another. Dave talks to Dana White and Dave used to talk to Vince. ROH and others run ads on his site. Dave brings wrestlers on for interviews. Dave gets information from people in the business and probably gives them some information too. Every time Dave or Bryan mention a promotion, they are by default giving it promotion and advertisement. Every wrestling site or message board is a living advertisement for a promotion.

 

3) There's not a ton of English speakers to choose from who know about NJPW. There's me, the F4W/PWTorch crew, former wrestlers, Josh Barnett and other journalists/fans/wrestlers. I don't think NJPW's gonna be searching message boards for fans either. Dave would clearly be a top pick as would Striker, Ross, Tenay, etc.

 

4) You can't review a wrestling show without any bias whatsoever, because so much of wrestling is based on opinion and not fact. There is no factual standard for a good promotion. Money doesn't count either because WWF made a ton of it in the Attitude era and had awful wrestling. You can tell on the box score when a player has a good game, but you can't with wrestling because it's FAKE. With that being said, yes, Dave pimping NJPW has no doubt helped its popularity as it did with ECW and AAA in the 90's, but the number is still low. Even the Tokyo Dome reviews on my site still got 1/10 of an unpopular Raw review. if Dave got into say Zero-1 tomorrow, a bunch of people who didn't have any interest before would suddenly be interested too.

 

5) It's a lot more fun and enjoyable to review and talk about shows when you like them, as opposed to when you hate them. Cleaning a toilet would have been more appealing to me than sitting through a 3 hour Raw. Listen to a Bryan and Vinny show when they have to talk about Impact and you'll always hear a loud "UGH". Meanwhile, they enjoy a show like NXT more and have much more positive reviews of it.

 

Screw Dave for trying to do something he'd enjoy and for trying to do something that would benefit him, right? Obviously, he should be taking career and life advice from Keith Harris, whoever the hell that is.